March Meeting Minutes and proposed plan for next step in RIC discernment

Hi Everyone,

Here are the minutes of the last RIC meeting, some thoughts and a suggestion concerning our RIC discernment.

At our Thursday meeting we read the proposed ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality, summarized our take-away from the RIC training, and started planning next steps in the RIC discernment at Creator.

RIC Training

Three of us at the meeting had attended the RIC training.

Toni mentioned that she was struck during that weekend by a quote from writer Frederick Beuchner: "Our vocation happens when our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." I am struck by the quote as well and I wonder if we can discover that deep gladness in the work we now have before us.

Pastor Dayle's take-away from the training was “the power of core values”. Throughout the weekend Creator was consistently used as an example during excercises because we had a large number of participants. Emily Eastwood, the lead facilitator, asked us to choose if baptism or communion was a stronger core value for our congregation. Everyone from Creator answered communion. Communion is a value we share that may help draw us to consensus in the future.

A moment of clarity for me during training was a declaration that "Action is the oxygen of a community organization. Without it our organizations and our power to change society die." I researched this and found the quote came from writer / community organizer Saul Alinsky.
At the training each participant voiced a promise to take action to another participant and also agreed to hold another participant accountable for an action that he or she will take by a particular deadline. I thought about people like our own Janice and how they would be energized by this.

RIC Discernment Plan

Next, at our Thursday meeting, we discussed our plan for RIC discernment at Creator, our next action items and the deadlines. See your email attachment for action items.

Since Thursday my wife Mary and I have talked about was proposed at the meeting: a plan to set up educational events at host homes, divide the congregation by zip code, and for the RIC team members to invite the congregational members on the list. I told her this was still a work in process.

In discussing our plan, she unknowingly engaged me in another piece of what we learned in training, a little agitation.

She asked "What is the RIC team doing?"

I answered her, "Developing an explicit affirmation of welcome that would be voted on at next January's congregational meeting."

She asked "Who will attend these events?"

I answered, “Based on past experience, the most likely attendees would be those who already take a positive view on the explicit affirmation of GLBT together with those who usually attend events like this.”

Her final question was "Are you trying to determine where the congregation currently stands, or are you trying to change the minds of those who don't agree with you?"

That question opened my eyes. I realized that we don't know how the congregation feels, we started to plan based on assumptions, and, essentially, we were sticking to our old plan that did not take into account our recent training. Also, dividing Creator into groups as a first step may not be one we want to take symbolically.

What has happened around the RIC process at Creator so far is remarkable. It began with the language of welcome used in our charter.

Also, Pastor Dayle reminded us last Sunday of the courage she needed to respond when, during her call interview with the congregation, Mary Steinberg asked her to expand on a remark she made about wanting the church to be “fully welcoming”.

After “her quick chat with God”, Pastor Dayle decided to talk about those Creator might be uncomfortable to welcome. The fact that Mary asked Pastor Dayle the question, that Pastor Dayle answered the way she did and that the congregation called her after her answer demonstrates something important about Creator. I wish I had been there.

That made me I think about recent incidents I have witnessed. At council, when Kelly spoke out and broke the flow of the meeting to bring our talk back to the RIC proposal that had been made when most council members wanted to end an overly long meeting. I saw his interruption as a gift I vividly remember. It confirmed that the time is now to start RIC discernment.

Gretchen's inspired RIC presentation at January's congregational meeting was a true moment of church. Also, that Toni, Mary and Janice were moved to take on this challenge and attend the RIC training is amazing. That a national RIC training happened here in Portland just as we started RIC discernment here is another piece of this incredible story.

So, what is next? I look back at what struck us at the training; deep gladness meeting deep need in our work, learning our core value of communion, and a commitment to action. Our first action in RIC discernment should engage us in work of deep gladness, help us articulate more of our core values like communion and allow everyone to take immediate action if they want.

Here is a suggestion. Let's ask the entire congregation to contribute to building Creator's affirmation of welcome now. We can tell them our goal of explicitly welcoming anyone who may not have felt welcome now or in the past. Bring in the "one on one" atmosphere we learned in training by having everyone think about when they felt deeply welcomed and when they didn't, particularly at Creator.

Our work would be to distill these words into an affirmation of welcome that celebrates that welcome when we do it right and challenges us when we don’t. I think it could be a goose-bump moment if done from the unity this process promises.

I can go into details later about how this collaboration would work.. We could survey the congregation on the distilled affirmation of welcome until we knew people would vote for it.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Gary